Jeff Bewkes has the balls to run Time Warner

-By SDH The media business world is itching to see what new Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes's first move will be to get the juices flowing at Time Warner again. With the company’s stock in the shitty neighborhood of $14, Bewkes needs to do something drastic and out of the blue to send a message to investors and Wall Street, like firing Time Inc CEO Ann Moore and AOL head Randy Falco, two people who aren't capable of leading their companies in these new media times, and install new blood from outside the company. OK so maybe that’s a little too drastic right out the gate, but those are two changes that need to be made to start the process. Will Bewkes drop any hints during Time Warner's 2007 fourth-quarter and full-year results on Wednesday, February 6, his first earnings call as CEO? Under former CEO Dick Parsons, the company seemed frozen and Parsons didn't seem willing to thaw it out and get creative. Its clear the board elected Parsons to do some well needed cleaning after the disaster that was the AOL-Time Warner merger. But when Parsons was done cleaning, it’s as if he got stuck not knowing what to do next. More... Well it was only right that Bewkes stepped up as the new shot caller because according to a recent story in New York Magazine, Bewkes was Parsons' hit man, the man Parsons would send to confront individuals he couldn’t bring himself to face. Sure Parson's doesn't admit it out right but Jeff Bewkes was Parsons' muscle and he (Bewkes) wasn't afraid to tell people like Steve Case he was full of shit. Dick Parsons was perhaps too diplomatic for the CEO gig after a while. It seems as though he was worried about pissing people off than doing what he needs to do to inject some energy into the company. Then again he could have just been busy in Italy tending to his vineyard. Parsons' well liked diplomacy began to work against him after a while. Many, including Bewkes believed he (Parsons) allowed corporate thug Carl Icahn to bamboozle him into spending boat loads of cash to buy back stock when he could and probably should have used the money elsewhere. Time Warner's board and investors need not worry. They got it right when they approved Bewkes as the company's new CEO. Bewkes is clearly a take no prisoners leader who speaks his mind and will not think twice about making the changes necessary to benefit shareholders. After all they are who he works for.

The Break up: Will Jeff Bewkes Viacomize Time Warner?

With the keys to the biggest media company (in terms of assets) about to be handed to him, are investors expecting major changes under a Bewkes administration at Time Warner? Perhaps. Bewkes has said that corporate thug Carl Icahn's suggestion of a break up was a valid one and was still on the table. Is this a sign that he will seek to break off AOL and Time Inc to drive shareholder value? Or did he just say that at the time just for the sake of saying it. We think saying a suggestion like Icahn's was a valid one and is still on the table is Jeff keeping all options open in case he has to act fast which we guess is smart. But how would breaking up the company, if at all hurt his and Dick Parsons' relationship? Parsons was firm on his decision to not break up the company which at the time was backed by Bewkes. Is Jeff waiting to grab the CEO title so his true colors can shine? As you can imagine we're really anxious about this announcement as you can see by our estimated count down clock to the start of the Bewkes era. Bewkes appears likely to receive a steady picture at Time Warner [FT]

The media industry's nice guy begins his looong goodbye tour

Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons has officially begun his loooong goodbye tour. Dubbed as the media industry's diplomat, or the media industry's nice guy (OK we made that one up) The big bear of a media exec is packing it in as soon as the board says so. He has been talking up Jeff Bewkes as the best person to take over, as if he really needs to do that, and that he will be leaving the company in good shape. However Parsons does have his critics but that isn't going to stop the man who survived a merger disaster, lawsuits, Carl Icahn, his CFO's expensive taste in female companions and many other obstacles he faced from going out on a good note. “We’re in the passing lane right now, Jeff and I,” Parsons said. “The exact timing is up to our board to decide. But I’m running hard and Mr. Bewkes is running hard.” Parsons Prepares to Pass Baton to Bewkes [MCN]

Dick Parsons rewarded for Carl Icahn's thuggery?

-SHOMARI Time Warner big bear and possible candidate for New York City Mayor Dick Parsons took home some serious bacon to wife Laura last year. Dick reportedly took home $22.5 million because according to the Time Warner board, he reached most of his targets. However he could have taken home double that but we guess the board didn't want any attention regarding any big pay outs. This is all good and dandy, but does Dick Parsons and company owe a little thank you to corporate thug Carl Icahn? He did attempt to shake things up at the media giant even selecting the man who would take Dick's spot if he was successful in a takeover. In the end though, Icahn and Parsons came to some closed door deal, and not long after that the company started to initiate some of Icahn's earlier suggestions. Wonder what Time Warner heir Jeff Bewkes took home to Peggy? TW CHIEF DESERVES $22.5M PAYDAY [NYP]

Morning Wire: Going green for the cause, and more in this morning's worthy media news...

Discovery Communications CEO David M. Zaslav who broke away from the Jeff Zucker Regime, is doing his part to save the earth with the imminent launch of a 24-hour channel focused on eco-friendly living, as part of a push into the rising environmental movement. Cool but will he then shut down the channel when the momentum dies? [NYT] Speaking of saving the earth, Felix Dennis's The Week Magazine is also doing its part in that department. The Magazine will publish an extra issue online, rather than in its regular printed format. The special issue will feature articles on the environment — hence the decision to spare trees by publishing it just on the Internet. At this point, does it matter if they spared a tree or two for one issue? [NYT] Is The board of Ion Media Networks taking a page out of Tribune's book newspaper by pressuring NBC Universal and Citadel Investment Group to sweeten their takeover offer before next month's deadline? [NYP] There are different versions of Carl Icahn all over the world. France's version Vincent Bollore is trying to muscle his way onto the board of Aegis, the world's largest independent ad-buying firm. [NYP]

Media's Billionaires, the Media Wire extraction

-Shomari Hines Forbes Magazine continues its annual spit in the face of us poor people by releasing their Billionaires list. From that list we extracted those we could remember within the media industry and/or those who dabble in it from time to time. Together the folks we extracted have an estimated combined sum of over $100 Billion. However we also believe Forbes has over estimated their list for years by counting one fortune 2 to 3 times, but we digress. Here are the list of media and/or media dabbling billionaires we were able to extract. Oh yeah they are not in any special order either. Barbara Cox Anthony – $12.6B Anne Cox Chambers - $12.6B Michael Bloomberg- $5.5B Rupert Murdoch - $9B Carl Icahn - S13B Sam Newhouse - $7.3B Dolan Family - $2.7B Sergey Brin- $16.6B Larry Page – $16.6B Kirk Kekorian - $15B Sumner Redstone - $8B Eric Schmidt - $6.2B CONTINUED.... Eli Broad - $6B Steve Jobs - $5.7B David Geffen - $4.7B George Lucas - $3.6B Jerrold Perenchio - $3B Steven Spielberg – 3B Haim Saban- $2.8B Ron Burkle - $2.5B David Filo - $2.3B Jerry Yang - $2.2B David Hearst - $2B George Hearst - $2B Roy Disney - $1.3B Meg Whitman - $1.3B Mike Eisner- $1B Herb Allen - $2B Austin Hearst - $2B Dan Ziff - $1.5B Dirk Ziff - $1.5B Robert Ziff - $1.5B Barry Diller - $1.4B Thomas Lee - $2B Edgar Bronfman- $3B

Corporate thug Carl Icahn's Time Warner green

Was it all a show for Wall Street so the stock could move? After launching a very open and mean campaign against Time Warner to break up the company, Carl Icahn backed off after a private chat with Time Warner big bear Dick Parsons. The company is still whole and Icahn recently pocketed a sweet $880 million after selling off 35 million shares, or 65 percent of his total stake, in the over sized media company. Did he have a private chat with Dick Parsons to say "OK I think I said enough bad things about the company and made enough threats. That should get the stock moving" ? The stock closed at $21.65 yesterday. When Icahn launched his campaign against TW on Aug. 15, 2005, the company's shares had gone three years without touching $20, closing that day at $18.50. Icahn's antagonism, which included claiming that Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons wasn't a media guy, provided just the jump start that the company needed. Parsons has admitted as much, crediting Icahn for helping the company accelerate plans to boost its lagging stock price. ICAHN DEPOSITS $880M TW BOUNTY [NYP]

Is this really Carl Icahn's thuggery working?

A year after coporate thug Carl Icahn along with his equally thugy allies, took the fight to Dick Parsons and his inner circle at Time Warner, the stock price of the country's biggest media company is dancing the good dance. But again, we should not get ahead of ourselves. TWX shares are lately trading around $22.50. Mr. Icahn got his wish, at least in part. And the company did not have to be broken into pieces to realize the value. Still, it is interesting to look now at the Lazard value for each unit. Lazard combined the studio unit with the cable content operation (CNN, Turner) and came up with a value range of $55.9 billion to $61.4 billion. Cable's valuation was $43.3 billion to $48.5 billion. One year later: Icahn gets his stock price -- without breaking up TWX [Blogging Stox]

Ron Burkle's Carl Icahn like thoughts

Grocery tycoon Ron Burkle who recently bid for media giant Tribune Company along with fellow billionaire Eli Broad in an attempt to join the media elite club, is adding activist to his credit as well, with fresh inspiration from corporate thug Carl Icahn. Burkle, who runs the investment firm Yucaipa, plans to launch a “corporate governance” fund early next year. Burkle says he realized the impact his next fund could have after talking to the veteran investor Kirk Kerkorian, who now rankles the executive ranks of General Motors despite owning just a 10% stake in the ailing carmaker. “He wields tremendous influence,” marvels Burkle, who is intent on doing much the same at much smaller companies. When you're rich, you can buy anything including your very own bully pass. Ronald Burkle Thinks Like an Activist [DealBook]